Answer Key

1. 2. 3.

4. 5. 6. 7.

3 5

7
7 25

720

1/(x + 2) 5051 i 3

yz new outts, since each would involve the new shirt, one of y pairs of pants, and one of z pairs of shoes. Similarly, buying another pair of pants leads to xz additional outts, and more shoes gives xy extra outts. We know that yz = 48, xz = 90, and xy = 120. Multiplying these and taking the square root gives x2 y 2 z 2 = (48)(90)(120), which reduces to xyz = 720. In other words, Austin currently can create 720 outts. 4. The key to solving the problem lies in determining the line through O equidistant from C and D. It turns out that this line is the one passing through the midpoint M of segment CD. Note that CM and DM are not themselves perpendicular to OM . However, if we draw the segments that are perpendicular, creating the slim shaded right triangles, then the resulting triangles are congruent. (Proof?) This shows that line OM is the same distance from C and D. Hence any point P on AB above the intersection with OM will result in a line that is closer to C than to D. We nd that M has coordinates (1, 5 2 ), so line OM has equation 2 y = 5 x, which intersects the line x = 1 at the point (1, 2 5 ). Thus P can be located anywhere on the upper portion of AB , which has length 3/5. 5. One means for deducing the correct function g (x) is to observe that if a and b are any two consecutive terms in the sequence, then a + 1/b = 2. (Try this with a few pairs of terms to see how this works.) Solving for b leads to b = 1/(2 a). Therefore the desired function is given by g (x) = 1/(2 x), or g (x) = 1/(x + 2). (Either answer is ne.) 6. We count how many regions are formed by n circles for several small values of n in order to understand what happens as we add each successive circle. (The case n = 5 is shown at right, in which 16 regions are formed.) Tabulating our results for n = 1 to 5 yields n= # regions 0 1 1 2 2 4 3 7 4 11 5 . 16

1. Each row must contain at least one shaded square, but adjacent rows have dierent numbers of shaded squares, which means that there will need to be at least two more shaded squares, in the second and fourth row. The question is whether seven shaded squares can be arranged so that the columns also satisfy the given conditions. As the diagram demonstrates, this can be done, so 7 shaded squares suce. 2. Although it is usually not advantageous to create fractions when solving an equation, we will make an exception here and divide through by 5 before squaring both sides. The result is ( 1 + x)2 + 2( 1 + x)( 1 x) + ( 1 x)2 = Simplifying, we obtain (1 + x) + 2 2+2 1 x2 + (1 x) = 98 25 98 25 7 2 5
2

1 x2 =

24 25 576 49 2 = . x =1 625 625 1 x2 =

Therefore the positive solution to this equation is 7/25. 3. Suppose that Austin currently possesses x shirts, y pairs of pants, and z pairs of shoes. If he were to obtain one more shirt, then he would gain

Notice that subtracting adjacent values along the bottom row of the

table gives 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. This makes sense, because in general the nth circle will cut through n existing regions, creating n more regions than before. Hence 100 circles will form 1 + (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + + 100) = 1 + 1 2 (100 101) = 5051 regions. 7. Using absolute value notation to denote distance, we are given |2 1| = 2| 1|, |4 1| = 4| 1| = 2|2 1|.

December 2008

The nal equality follows by substituting in the rst equality. But we can rewrite |2 1| as |( + 1)( 1)| = |( + 1)| |( 1)|, so the rst equality simplies to just | + 1| = 2. (We can safely cancel |( 1)| since = 1.) Similarly, factoring 4 1 as (2 + 1)(2 1) allows us to rewrite the second equality as |2 + 1| = 2. At this point we substitute = a + bi and use the fact that 2 = (a2 b2 ) + 2abi and that |a + bi|2 = a2 + b2 to deduce that (a + 1)2 + b2 = 4, (a2 b2 + 1)2 + 4a2 b2 = 4.

National Level Round Two Solutions

The rst equation gives b2 = a2 2a +3, which can then be substituted into the second equation. The resulting equality miraculously reduces all the way down to a2 a = 0, so a = 0 or a = 1. These solutions in turn yield b = 3 and b = 0, respectively. Since we must have b > 0, the unique number satisfying the problem is = i 3.
c Greater Testing Concepts 2008

Greater Testing Concepts PO Box 760 Potsdam, NY 13676

The Mandelbrot Competition www.mandelbrot.org info@mandelbrot.org